Protests at UC Berkeley law school graduation

Source: SF Chronicle

(05-17) 10:53 PDT BERKELEY -- Some 50 protesters, clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to emulate the infamous photos of prisoners in Iraq, picketed the Boalt Hall graduation today, demanding that UC Berkeley's law school fire Professor John Yoo for his reported authorship of the Bush administration's policies on torture.

"We want to see him fired and disbarred for being a war criminal," said Anne Weills, an Oakland attorney representing the National Lawyers Guild. "Academic freedom stops when you intend to harm or injure somebody" ...

Boalt Hall officials said earlier this week that Yoo would not be at the graduation ceremony today ...

"He definitely should be prosecuted, but he deserves his day in court like anyone else," said Reem Salahi of Los Angeles, who graduated from the law school today. "Some people think this protest takes away from a celebratory event, but I think it's a good opportunity to raise this issue" ...

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/17/BAOK10OF9L.DTL&tsp=1

:woohoo:

I wished I could have stopped and joined them.

Great news. People standing up for what needs to be done!

:woohoo:

If Yoo broke the law in any way, then put him on trial, but he should not face dismissal until and only if he is convicted of a crime.

Tenure is meant to protect faculty with unpopular and nutball views.

As an academic, I agree with you about free speech in our universites. As a citizen, I know this man should be indicted.

If my government is too corrupt to make that indictment possible, I'm 100% behind the students that protest harboring corruption in an institution of learning.

Hideous as it is, the only recourse may be that Yoo and the others do not have immunity outside the US. I can only hope that the MCA could be found unconstitutional, and Yoo could be tried. I may be wrong, but I thought Yoo actually received his tenure just before he left to work for Bush.

And I believe you are right about the date of his tenure.

I'm proud today that my school is protesting his criminal ass.

Certainly not the current supreme court. It will have to be repealed.

Then he can be tried in a military tribunal and executed.

It would be necessary to strip him of his citizenship by executive fiat, but isn't that what the imperial presidency is all about?

can't do that. They can pass legislation to supersede it though, can't they?

My ConLaw1 is a bit rusty but this is similar to ex post facto laws (but not on all fours) or more likely an illegal taking of a right.

that the US is flying between 40 and 60 people every day to black sites. STILL.

We are talking about the criminally insane. If I lived and voted in Berkley, I would want the resignation of the man/woman who hired him as well and all who supported that decision. Good on these students who are rightly fighting for his deserved dismissal

The man is inappropriate and has no business being a law professor.

and who was on the committee that hired him initially

like you. Simply incredible to read this on a progressive board.


Bravo to all that protested!

When admitted to the Bar, Yoo took an oath to uphold the Constitution. Very likely he took the same oath upon his appointment to the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel. His legal opinions, which have the effect of law within the Justice Department and which was relied upon by our government officials and employees, attempted to immunize government officials in the Justice Department and the military from liability for criminal violations of the U.S. Constitution, U.s. Criminal Code and international treaties,effectively purporting to legalize torture under presidential war powers. The Geneva Code, ratified by the U.S. and incorporated into U.S. law, states that there can be no justification of any kind for torture. Thus, Yoo was complicit in the crimes carried out as a result of his legal opinion and should be held to answer for them.

While tenure protects university professors from unjustified dismissal, it does not protect against just cause firings. For a law professor to conspire to violate the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Criminal Code and our international treaties could certainly be considered just cause for dismissal. Minimally, his failure to cite the key legal case bearing on presidential war powers in his legal opinions was gross dereliction of his legal duties. If intentional, the omission is violative of the Code of Professional Responsibility. In any case, the omission reflects on his fitness to teach law

(I agree with you in general, but in this case I think we could make an exception. The guy advocates torture!)

possesses a law school to hire torture-salesmen like that. I understand that it is honorable for a lawyer to defend unpleasant clients (like Charles Garry representing the People's Temple suicide cult) but here we really have a much deeper issue. Consider how many truly excellent lawyers there are out there would would give their eye teeth to teach at a school like Boalt, and they hire and keep Yoo on the faculty?

that he took a leave of absence to legalize torture.

and have not seen any coverage of this. It is just wall to wall Hill covering entire hill stump speeches with passing glimpses of Obama.

so....retro.

while Ward Churchill gets raked across the coals for expressing accurate, reality-based opinions that aren't approved by CorpGov. Nice.

I agree with the above; waterboard the flimwad until he chokes on his tongue.

So, pronounce it protected, and then string him up.

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If he were, I suspect that might be good cause for firing him from a tenured position.

I had no idea. Talk about corruption from within ...

As a lawyer myself, I say that John Yoo should be fired and disbarred.

We saw this same crap in the 1950s, when too many lawyers were enablers for McCarthy and too many others were enablers for the vicious racists who fought civil rights.

John Yoo should be in prison, but short of that, he should be fired and disbarred. Spare me the "niceties." As a lawyer, he is held to an ethical standard for protecting the Constitution that he has pissed on repeatedly.